In his weekly Twitter mailbag, ESPN's Jake Trotter responded to our own Gerald Tracy regarding the status of Mason Rudolph's potential redshirt in the wake of J.W. Walsh's injury.

@Jake_Trotter does Rudolph lose his redshirt now that Walsh is out

— Gerald Tracy III (@GeraldTracyCRFF) September 12, 2025

Trotter's response is along the lines of many:

Assuming that J.W. Walsh is out for the year -- and I've been told that he is -- I think they have to. The Cowboys don't want to be in a situation where Daxx Garman gets injured, and they have to bring in Mason Rudolph in a critical moment with him having zero college experience. Plus, playing Rudolph will give them a chance to determine whether he might be the quarterback of the future. They could always come back and redshirt him next season when Walsh returns to the fray.

I'm pretty much in agreement with this except for the last line.

Rudolph will NOT be redshirting in 2015. First, the kid wants to play now. He enrolled early to compete for the job. If Gundy tries to go that route after Walsh returns, Rudolph will be the next Wes Lunt. I would think Garman would become the odd man out in that scenario, with Rudolph being no worse than the backup.

I agree with Kyle Porter 100% on this:

...I think we can all agree that either Daxx or Rudolph after 5-6 games would be better for this offense than JW is right now. I don’t know which one it will be but I’m pretty confident one of them would (will) be.

Walsh's injury is very unfortunate, and a person of his caliber doesn't deserve such breaks...

BUT...

As we've seen in the past, Gundy sometimes has to be forced to play the better QB. I don't think there's any question that, given the opportunity, one of these two backups will be better for this offense mainly due to their ability to throw the football.

As for Rudolph's redshirt, I do think it's done, but it might not be done today, even if he plays. I think I'm correct on this...a player can participate in up to one half of one game, as long as it's one of the first 3 games of the season, and still redshirt.

So the only way his redshirt gets burned tonight will be if Daxx does his best Alex Cate imitation, and Gundy pulls the trigger in the first half. There have been plenty of rumors that Rudolph has been running with the 2's, and I don't get the impression that Gundy is a big fan of Daxx, so it might only take the hint of an issue for the man to make the switch.

Either way, the tilt against UTSA could definitely be more intriguing than the season opener against Florida State.

GO POKES!!!